Page 13 of Harrowing Hall
“Shh.” Blake pulled her close before they walked away from the intimate moment and joined the others. “No need to apologize.” He played with one of her stray curls. “I know you have longed to investigate this hall for weeks, and I should have made it more accessible. Should have brought you back here myself despite tradition.” He sighed. “Yet we Scots tend to be superstitious, and this hall, as you see, has developed its own set of rules over the centuries.”
“And you, as its laird, needed to see those rules kept.” She rested her hand on his chest. “So I can only be thankful you broke them for me the first day, then again, tonight. That you left the door unlocked.”
Blake shook his head. “Yet I did not.” He glanced from the hall to her. “I saw the door ajar, then found you here alone in the moonlight.”
“Moonlight.” Taken aback, Maude frowned at the hallway. “It cannot be.” Her voice dropped an octave. “Surely you snuffed out the candles before joining me as several lighted my way here.”
“I did not.” He pointed out the candle he had set down. “I came with but one.”
“How curious.” Though a tad unsettled, she seemed anything but frightened. “I suppose, then, that Lady Annabel lit my way.” She considered him. “Or perhaps a servant?”
“None would dare enter this hall.” Nothing was more certain. “Especially on such a night.”
“Then we do indeed have a ghost.”
“So it would appear.” He gazed at Maude with adoration. “One who seems every bit as fond of you as I am. Who I suspect has given her blessing for what is to come.”
She batted her lashes. “And what might that be, Laird MacLauchlin?”
Blake smiled and brushed his lips across hers. “I believe you know, soon to be Lady MacLauchlin.” He grinned again. “But first, we must see to something just as important.”
Chapter Nine
“Hugh is here?”Maude could hardly contain her excitement. “And you mean to see him with Lady Jane?”
She slipped on a mask that only covered her eyes. Blake did the same with a black mask.
“I do mean to see them together.” He stopped her at the top of the stairs leading down to the great hall, wrapped his arm with hers, and looked at her most seriously. “But first, we must present ourselves, Miss Maude. For you are engaged to Lord MacLauchlin and destined to be Lady MacLauchlin far sooner than these fine folk think.”
“Oh, dear me, yes.” She smiled. “Because we are…because….”
When she trailed off, flustered, he finished her sentence for her. “To be married this very eve, per your request.” He perked a brow. “A request you may cancel at any moment if you decide you want the wedding I had intended to give you. If you want your sisters present.”
“It goes without saying that I would have liked my sisters present.”
However, there was no time. Not after the kiss they had just shared in Harrowing Hall. She had never felt such overwhelming desire. Even now, she ached. Needed him far too much to wait any longer to plan a wedding. Honestly, she had never dreamed of a big wedding like other women, anyway. If anything, running off to Gretna Green to marry had always held more appeal.
Until now, that is.
Marrying right here at a castle she had grown to love in the very dress she wore tonight seemed absolutely perfect.
“And they can wish me well after the fact,” she continued, referring to her sisters not being here for her and Blake’s nuptials. “Besides, even though they would never admit it, I can be a bit much for them, so it’s just as well. I need not worry over such on my wedding day.” She gave him a look, defending them despite herself. “Truth told, Idotend to be straightforward when they are anything but. There is no missing the weariness in at least two of the three when dealing with me as of late.”
Fortunately, they had not always been like that. Not before the louts to whom they were married. Now all were widowed, and none all that easy to manage if she were to be honest. Yet, she was their big sister, so manage she would because, in the end, they did love one another.
“So you have mentioned before.” Blake shook his head and smiled, clearly adoring her just the way she was. “Though I find them ever growing weary of you hard to believe.” He looked from the stairs back to Maude. “Are you ready to present yourself, soon-to-be wife?”
How she loved the sound of that.
“Yes.” She smiled and nodded when he started leading her along, then shook her head. “No.” This was not the first time she had worried about such over the past few weeks. “What if they think me a fool for aiming so high and marrying you? A lowly born simply out for status and money? And now so swiftly.”
Blake grinned and shrugged. “Then I say to all, who cares?” He seemed properly affronted. “Because I certainly do not. Do you?” Before she could respond, he went on. “The last I knew, we did not care much for what society thought. What was proper.” He arched his brows. “Has that changed in the last few minutes?”
“Well, no.” She looked from the stairs back to him. “But what if I let them down somehow?”
“You could not possibly.” Blake squeezed her hands and kept her gaze on his face. “What would you say to Hugh if he worried about such? If his worries kept him from being happy? From loving Lady Jane?” He caressed her cheek. “What would you say to him?”
“That he should not worry about such things,” she said without hesitation. With conviction. “They should be together no matter what. Love each other without worrying what others think.”
